You know the fundamentals. Eat, sleep, move, meditate, unplug. So does every tired principal.
The problem is there’s nobody around to push you the way you encourage your teachers all year long.
Here's what it means to build that push into your own week.
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OFF CAMPUS
💥 Teaching in the Riptide: Why staying calm is your most powerful classroom management strategy
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🙌 Not Another Mandate: 3 ways to make teachers' lives easier
📅 Jump Back Up July: Kinder, caring, connected at Actions For Happiness
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The Simplest Stuff Is Still the Hardest
I asked Danny a question on the podcast a few weeks back: if you were sitting across from a tired principal right now, what would you tell them?
He went straight to the fundamentals.
Eat. Sleep. Move. Meditate. Unplug.
Then he paused, maybe because it sounded so straightforward.
"Half of what we can teach is the simplest stuff," he said. "But you need reminders. You need people to ask the question and push you."
I've been thinking about his answer, in particular, the part about the reminder.
You already know you should sleep. You already know lunch isn't supposed to happen at your desk between emails. Nobody needs to teach you that.
Yet you’re always on.
What you're missing is someone in your ear asking, prompting, pushing.
When’s the last time you had a drink of water?
Remember two hours ago when you needed to pee? Go now!
Time to put the phone down.
You ask your teachers to take care of themselves all year.
But nobody's watching out for you.
Here's the part that gets me …
Principals tend to treat that rush like a condition, like the weather. Something that happens to us.
It turns into overwhelm, and Principals normalize that the same way you normalize those achy neck and shoulders you've had so long you forgot it was ever not there.
And a condition you've normalized is a condition you stop trying to treat.
Picture a new principal in September.
First building, first staff.
Knows the fundamentals.
Full of vim and vinegar.
When the questions start coming — scheduling, parent complaints, an overwhelmed teacher, and three hundred unread emails before 10 am on Monday — they hit a wall. There aren’t five minutes to check in.
That's the moment overwhelm gets normalized. Because nobody's pushy enough to interrupt the pattern.
This is where Selfmentorship earns its keep.
It’s available right then, in September, when that joyous, exciting energy kicks in.
Selfmentorship means you stop waiting for the district, the calendar, or a mentor with an open slot to remind you. You build the reminder into your own week.
Here are a few ways to do exactly that:
The Ruckus Maker Mindset: reject the premise that overwhelm is just the job. You get to design your own scoreboard and decide which fundamentals you’ll protect.
Retention Is the Result: Danny’s latest book, a deliberately short read, because tired principals don't need one more thousand-page ask.
Digital Danny: your pocket mentor, available 24/7 before anyone else is awake, and one way to make sure you’re getting asked those “pushy questions”.
None of these fix overwhelm by handing you new information.
You already have the information.
What they do is invite a pushy voice back into the conversation.
That new principal in September needs someone willing to ask them if they’re living their fundamentals.
So do you.
SELFMENTORSHIP IN ACTION
THE RUCKUS MAKER MINDSET
Before you build one more system for your staff this week, dial up Danny's Ruckus Maker Mindset Tool. Five questions to optimize your performance:
Are you eating?
Are you sleeping?
Are you moving?
Are you meditating?
Are you unplugging?
Write down one you’re taking the least time for and address it this week.
Then take it one step further: what would it look like to build a person, habit, or tool into your week to push you to address it?
Who asks you the pushy question?
SUNDAY VIBES
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Whenever you’re ready, here’s 3 ways we can help you on your Selfmentorship journey:
If your campus runs you instead of you running it, meet Digital Danny — your 24/7 Ruckus Maker coach. Start here.
Experience weekly coaching and peer mentorship. Surround yourself with other Ruckus Makers in the mastermind. Apply here.
Keep Making a Ruckus,
PS … trust yourself
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